New York Times

The most pressing question that Donald J. Trump could face next week in the first debate of the 2016 presidential race may not be about Iran or immigration, but this: Can he deploy enough adjectives (“huge!”), superlatives (“the worst!”) and invectives (“loser!”) for him to use up his time without being challenged successfully on the substance of policy?

A U.S. House member whose constituents include the family of the longest-held American prisoner in Iran said Thursday that he had decided to vote in favor of the nuclear agreement reached with Iran on July 14.

When Gov. Scott Walker kicked off his presidential bid this month, supporters who visited his website could view photographs of him, peruse his announcement speech, and read about the Wisconsin Republican’s life and accomplishments.

Without ever quite saying so explicitly, President Barack Obama used his four-day trip to Africa to suggest that the United States offers an alternative to China’s aggressive courtship of the continent.

As Medicare and Medicaid reach their 50th anniversary on Thursday, the two vast government programs that insure more than one-third of Americans are undergoing a transformation that none of their original architects foresaw: Private health insurance companies are playing a rapidly growing role in both.

The newly approved cholesterol-lowering drug, Praluent, is powerful almost beyond belief. It can drive levels of LDL cholesterol, the dangerous kind, into the 20s or even the teens, numbers almost never before seen in adults.

OPELIKA, Ala. — All dressed up in a shiny new red shirt, little Opelika could not stand still in the anteroom of the City Council chambers. And who could blame her? In a few minutes she would meet the mayor of this Alabama city for which she is named. Her meltingly calm mother, Lily, ignored her fidgeting.